Online users

Tralalas

Tralalas are about any subject related to quilting and other textile crafts. Tralalas are never 100% serious, but always carry a core of truth within them. You are invited to laugh with us at ourselves and perhaps even share your own experiences in the comment area.

Right at our conception admittedly, there is some major excitement. Fabrics are chosen, patterns are researched, and sewing utensils are frantically searched for. Cutting tools are sharpened and matching threads are purchased. The sewing machine prepares for a heavy workout. Design ideas are conceived, evaluated, and sometimes overthrown again. Crisis breaks out when it becomes evident that the focus fabric will run out before we are finished.

Last night, I had a terrible nightmare. I had gone to my quilt guild’s meeting, sat down at my usual place by the window, got my sewing machine out of its protective cover, put the latest project under the presser foot, had looked up and had seen...

Have you ever asked yourself where your ideas and your inspiration for quiltmaking come from? Why, suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere, does an ingenious quilt design pop up in your brain, embed itself firmly into your thought processes and rob you of your peace of mind until you find the time to sit down at your sewing machine...

Years ago, I wrote an e-mail to a friend saying that I would have to leave the office early – it was a Friday afternoon – to go to the city centre because I was in very urgent need of fabric. So what, you might think. Quite normal for a quilter, I think...

I am Miss Spoilsport. I haven’t always been her, but it seems that somehow, surreptitiously, I have turned into an older version of one of those mousy and serious little creatures sporting two perfect braids and a good girl outfit and with her pencils always sharpened to sickening perfection. You will certainly remember the type of girl from school many, many moons back...

When I started to quilt 15 years ago, I didn’t know anybody even remotely interested in the craft. Not in my own age group – I was in my mid-twenties then – and not in any other age group either for that matter. There were not that many publications available in Germany at that time, so I joined the German patchwork guild in quest of knowledge, enlightenment and fellow quilters...

My owner is a quilter. She bought me some ten years ago because I have a special presser foot which apparently is indispensable for making patchwork. Which probably is the reason why she steadfastly ignores all the other lovely accessories I came with...

There is a major deadline in my professional life which looms ahead of me (or rather swings above my head like Damocles’ sword). I wake up in the morning after a night of fitful sleep dreaming of wrecked computers (without a back-up, of course) and printers on strike. The minute I realize that the computer and printer are both in working order, I discover that one of the books borrowed from a nearby library has to be returned today or I risk the loss of my citizenship.... (24 September 2011)

There are many amusing activities for quilters to start together. There are Round Robins, Row Robins, quilt challenges, friendship quilts, swapping AMCs (artists’ mailing cards), blocks and fabrics, plus probably a lot more we haven’t even thought of. Most of these activities require a largish group of quilters, a predefined and well-explained task, a few rules to keep both motivation and inspiration within bearable limits and – a deadline... (22 August 2011)